Dear Sparkle: What Is Wrong With This Tortie Kitten?

Dear Sparkle,
I am an orange tabby who loves my big brother and tortie sister, but they are a lot older than me and I’ve been friendly with the neighbor’s cat. So my human thought I would enjoy someone younger to play with and she brought home a tortie kitten (seems to be a theme here, doesn’t it?). But I think there is something wrong with her! She sits in most of my favorite spots and hogs the toys. I find myself growling at her, even though I’ve never growled before in my life! Since you have Binga, I thought you might know what to do about this troublesome tortie.
Signed,
Rucker

Dear Rucker,
I hate to say it, but the only thing wrong with this tortie kitten is that she is a tortie — and that’s something you just can’t fix! In fact, I think you are lucky — if this had been Binga, she would have hogged your favorite spots and toys, and then growled at you! Smacking her is useless because chances are she will just smack you right back. Torties are feisty kitties who give as good as they get… or better! I bet your older tortie family member was quite a pistol in her day. There are some torties who buck the bossiness trend, but they are not very common.

You want to know the secret to dealing with a misbehaving tortie? You have to change your own reaction to her! That is really about all you can do. Torties are happy just the way they are, so they have no reason to change. Let me give you some tips on adjusting your own attitude: instead of growing at her, maybe you should pretend something else is more interesting than what she is hogging. It is bound to spark her curiosity and she will want to have whatever it is too. Then you can take back what was rightfully yours. Or here is another one: instead of letting her make you angry, get on her nerves on purpose! Torties are really fun to annoy because it is very easy to do. I do that all the time with Binga, purely for amusement. Just remember, torties always act before they think, so if you do the opposite, you should be able to have the upper paw. The moment you react to their bad behavior, you’ve lost. Good luck, and who knows? When you look at her from a different perspective, you might find you like her after all.

“…Torties are really fun to annoy because it is very easy to do.” AND HOW! Our resident black-and-orange bombshell was sweetness purrsonified until she got a little, shall we say, mature. Now, our servant refers to her as “the bat-eared whapping tortle”. And yes, she DOES have huge ears — we think she may have been the inspiration for the “Dumbo” character. Oh, wait, no.

Since the Tortie in his house is as mellow as mellow can be and has no bossy bone in her body (actually if you pick her up you’d swear she had NO bones in her body since she goes limp), we’re beginning to think that it’s the other kitties in the house that make Torties have a bad name. Just sayin!

You described Astrid purrfectly, but then you know Torties well from living with Binga. It is interesting that Calista Jo seems totally different being a dilute tortie. Do you think they have a more mild personality as their furs are muted? Interesting question to pursue at sometime. XO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo